Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)

On 20 October, 2010, as part of the Government Spending review, the chancellor announced that the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) will be launched in June 2011.

This is great news as the RHI scheme will be the first of its kind in the world.

The announcement on the detailed design of the scheme is expected by the end of the year. This should cover both the tariffs and the technologies supported within the scheme.

The RHI will represent over £850M of investment over the spending review period. This is aimed to move from the current 1% to a target 12% of all heat to be generated from renewable sources, in the UK, by 2020.

Heat production is responsible for around half (49%) of the final energy demand consumed in the UK and roughly half of all UK’s carbon emissions. As the scheme will be available to householders and businesses alike this is a big step forward in reducing these excessive figures.

This will be a welcome incentive that potentially reduces the lengthy payback period of some of these technologies which may then make them more attractive and more financially viable to a larger number of individuals and organisations.

Under current proposals all installations completed after 15 July, 2009 are eligible to claim the RHI as this represents the publication date of the Renewable Energy Strategy (RES) which first announced that renewable heating installations could be eligible for this RHI.

The scheme is planned to cover a wide range of technologies, and fuel sources, including:
Air or Ground Source Heat Pumps
Solar Thermal
Biomass Boilers
Renewable combined heat & power
Use of Biogas & Bioliquids

Although do note that the RHI for Solar Thermal is planned to be less due to it being a more recognised source of renewable heat and that it is easier to install.

We will update as and when more information in regards to the RHI become available.